The monitoring of analyte concentration levels in a bio-fluid (e.g., blood) may be an important part of health management (testing and/or control). For example, analyte sensors (sometimes referred to as “test strips”) may be used for the monitoring of a patient's blood glucose level as part of diabetes testing. In analyte testing, for example, the patient may use a portable lancing device which may be a spring-loaded, trigger-releasable device which receives a single-use, disposable lancet. When the lancet is released, it may prick the user's body part to produce a droplet of blood. That blood droplet may then be transferred to an analyte sensor strip which may interface with, and may be received within, a port in an analyte meter, such as a Blood Glucose Meter (BGM). The analyte sensor test strips may also be single use and disposable. Depending on the meter reading, a user may need to undertake control measures, such as by administering a glucose tablet or insulin.
Accurate analyte detection may be important to such control measures. Furthermore, self-coding to enable the analyte meter to read the sensor's calibration information is desirable so that the user may not need to enter any calibration codes or information. The elimination of the need for the manual entry of calibration codes both simplifies the management of the disease for the user, and minimizes a risk of improper manual entry, which may affect the accuracy and precision of the analyte detection.
It would, therefore, be beneficial to provide improved analyte sensors, and apparatus, systems and methods for reading them which exhibit improved accuracy and/or enhanced calibration capability.